Lower Waitaki scheme sold

Press, 26 July 1989, Page 5

Lower Waitaki scheme sold

By OLIVER RIDDELL in Wellington The Lower Waitaki irrigation scheme is the first of the Crown’s 46 irrigation schemes to be sold. The Government announced yesterday it has been sold for just under $1 million to a company formed by the scheme’s users. The Minister for State-Owned Enterprises, Mr Rodger, said the scheme was being sold for the best possible price, in line with the Government’s objective of reducing the debt burden by selling its assets. The sale should give local user-owners the incentive to use the resource efficiently, he said. Lower Waitaki served most of the Otago side of the Lower Waitaki River, where the predominant land use was sheep farming, and provided water to Oamaru and the Pukeuri freezing works. Further sales of irrigation schemes in North Otago and South Canterbury were expected to follow, Mr Rodger said. The Minister of Agriculture, Mr Moyle, said local irrigators would manage the scheme under contract to the Crown until the change of ownership was formalised by amending legislation later in the year. The offer of $960,000 was the maximum that could be expected from local farmers, particularly as this purchase had been financed by almost 100 per cent borrowed capital, he said. Lower Waitaki irrigates nearly 16,000 ha of farmland.

The Minister of Finance, Mr Caygill, said agreement in principle had ..been reached for another 11 of the 46 Crown schemes for sale.